Roger Steptoe (born 1953) is an English composer and pianist. He studied music at the
University of Reading
The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...
as an undergraduate and then at the
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...
, London, from 1974 to 1977 as a post-graduate student.
There he studied composition with
Alan Bush
Alan Dudley Bush (22 December 1900 – 31 October 1995) was a British composer, pianist, conductor, teacher and political activist. A committed communist, his uncompromising political beliefs were often reflected in his music. He composed prol ...
and piano accompaniment with Geoffrey Pratley.
His String Quartet No. 1 (1976) and the opera ''King of Macedon'' (1978–79, to a libretto by
Ursula Vaughan Williams, based on a stage play by Charterhouse school pupil 1973-77 Charles Jockelson) were composed during his time as composer in residence at
Charterhouse School
Charterhouse is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Godalming, Surrey, England. Founded by Thomas Sutton in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian monastery in Charter ...
from 1976 to 1979. Between 1980 and 1991 he was professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music. Notable works during this period include the Clarinet Quintet and the solo piano piece ''Equinox'', a series of concertos, and the ''Elegy on the Death and Burial of Cock Robin'' (1988) for counter tenor and strings.
[Bye, Anthony. 'Sweep and Sublimity', in ''Musical Times'' July 1992, pp. 343-344]
As a pianist, Steptoe recorded the first modern performances of the
Walton and
Bridge
A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...
piano quartets, and in the first recording of the ''Four Last Songs'' by
Vaughan Williams. Anthony Bye has described Steptoe's style as "wholeheartedly in the tradition of Vaughan Williams,
Finzi,
Howells,
Britten and
Tippett...regenerated with thoroughly contemporary means of expression".
[
]
Selected works
Opera
* ''King of Macedon'' (1978–1979); 3 acts; libretto by Ursula Vaughan Williams
* As You Like It, ( 2015-2016 ); 3 Acts; libretto by Lesley Fernández-Armesto; first performed at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, 2016
Orchestral
* ''Cheers!'' (1993)
* ''This Side of Winter'' (2002)
* ''A Three-Tango Rhapsody'' (2007)
* ''Two Miniatures'' for strings (1977)
Concertante
* Concerto for cello and chamber orchestra (1991)
* Concerto for clarinet and strings (1989)
* Concerto for oboe and strings (1982)
* Concerto for tuba and strings (1983)
* ''Light'', Sinfonietta for organ and strings (2006–2007)
Chamber music
* Clarinet Quintet (1980)
* ''Dance Suite'' for oboe, clarinet and string quartet (1984)
* Duo for oboe and harp (1991)
* Oboe Quartet (1988–1989)
* ''Petite Sonatine 1'' for viola solo (2009); commissioned for the 2010 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition
Piano
* ''Equinox'' (1981)
* Piano Sonata No.1 (1979)
* Piano Sonata No.2 (1988)
* Piano Sonata No.3 (2003)
* ''Three Nocturnes'' (1991)
* ''Three Preludes'' (1976)
Vocal
* ''Aspects'' for high voice and piano (1978)
* ''The Bond of the Sea'' for bass baritone and piano (1983); text by Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the Eng ...
* ''An Elegy on the Death and Burial of Cock Robin'' for countertenor and 11 solo strings (1988)
* ''Four Shakespeare sonnets'' for baritone and string orchestra (2013)
* ''Five Songs'' for tenor and piano (1976); poems by Percy Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was an English writer who is considered one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame durin ...
and John Keats
John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tub ...
* ''The Looking Glass'' for soprano, oboe and piano (1980); words by Ursula Vaughan Williams
* ''3 Paul Verlaine Songs'' (''3 French Songs'') for mezzo-soprano, viola and piano (2009); words by Paul Verlaine
Paul-Marie Verlaine ( ; ; 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolism (movement), Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the ''fin de siècle'' ...
* ''Three Sonnets to Delia'' for baritone and piano (1993); poems by Samuel Daniel
Samuel Daniel (1562–1619) was an English poet, playwright and historian in the late-Elizabethan and early- Jacobean eras. He was an innovator in a wide range of literary genres. His best-known works are the sonnet cycle ''Delia'', the epic ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steptoe, Roger
1953 births
English male classical pianists
English classical composers
English opera composers
English male opera composers
Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music
Living people
21st-century English classical pianists
21st-century English male musicians